#PutLawOnChain

Q for ChatAI: “how would you put repos of the world’s positive law on the blockchain?” Response:

To put the world’s positive law on the blockchain, you would need to do the following:

1. Identify the sources of positive law that you want to include. This could include national and international legal codes, judicial decisions, and other sources of legal authority.
2. Collect and digitize the legal text from these sources. This could involve manually transcribing the text or using optical character recognition (OCR) software to convert scanned documents into digital text.
3. Use a tool or library to convert the legal text into a format that can be stored on the blockchain. This could involve serializing the text as JSON or using a markup language like XML or HTML.
4. Use a blockchain platform to create a decentralized database or ledger that can store the legal text. This could involve setting up a private blockchain using a technology like Hyperledger [umm, no thx!] or using a public blockchain like Ethereum [yes, but realistically IPFS/filecoin?].
5. Use smart contracts or other blockchain-based tools to manage and secure access to the legal text on the blockchain. This could involve defining rules for how the legal text can be accessed and modified, and implementing authentication and authorization mechanisms to control who can access the legal text.
6. Develop a user interface or application that allows users to search and access the legal text on the blockchain. This could involve building a web-based interface or a mobile app that allows users to search for specific legal provisions or browse the legal text in a structured way.
7. Overall, putting the world’s positive law on the blockchain would require a significant effort to collect and digitize the legal text, as well as to develop the necessary technology and infrastructure to store and manage the legal text on the blockchain. It would also require collaboration and coordination with legal experts, government officials, and other stakeholders to ensure that the legal text on the blockchain is accurate, up-to-date, and legally binding.

Assessment: Chai grossly overestimates the difficulty of the effort and the centrality (or indeed, feasibility) of the last part: “ensur[ing] that the legal text on the blockchain is … legally binding.”

Will revisit this question as Chai matures from its 1L legal sensibility towards a more nuanced understanding of law. Stay tuned.

couldn’t help it — kept going:

Q: FYI — you greatly overestimate the importance of the “positive law” being “legally binding”

A: I apologize if my response gave the impression that the “positive law” being “legally binding” is a necessary condition for putting it on the blockchain. While it is true that the “positive law” is typically considered to be the body of law that is formally enacted and enforced by a government or other legal authority, it is not necessarily the case that all “positive law” is legally binding.

Q: do you think positive law repos are a public commons? do people have a right to freely access these repos of the world’s positive law?

Q: if people are required to pay a fee, do you see how this creates unequal, unfair, and ultimately unjust “access to justice” — ? Moreover, your answer puts governments above law, which is deeply problematic, and illegal.

Will keep going & learning together. More soon.